Experiencing electronica directly.

A couple of years ago I saw Imogen Heap play at the Royal Albert Hall.  I had been looking forward to the gig for a long time having enjoyed her music with Frou Frou and her solo work and I sat in my seat in eager anticipation.  I’ve always felt Imogen is an innovative artist and I was curious to see how that would translate to the live experience.

I wasn’t disappointed.  Apart from being completely personable and open with the audience, she also managed to include us in the music being made.  She told stories behind the songs she played and I loved the humour she brought to the stories and then the emotion that I felt when she actually begun to play.

Imogen also bravely made use of samples during the show.  At one point she sampled the audience as we sung a refrain and included us in one of her songs.  At another point she sampled herself and layered up a song bit by bit until it was fully formed.  This could’ve gone so wrong (and she did have to restart the sample at one point), but the overall effect was beautiful and made me feel as if I was part of the experience, rather than just a passive observer.

Some people have said use of modern technology detracts from art and music as it creates a barrier between the person creating the art and the person experiencing it.  It is suggested that it brings us out of the music to the gadget that is creating it, but in this instance it firmly rooted us in the music and made it a more powerful experience.

Imi makes extensive use of social media and regularly has video chats with her fans to create music together and share ideas. I’ve loved watching her video diaries online (check out some on her website, she is so endearing), joining in with these video chats and that her connection to the people who buy and love her music is immediate and unfiltered by record companies.  Not only is this refreshing, but it makes me feel more connected to the music she creates.

As a brief aside, Marc Cohn also manages to connect directly with his fans via Facebook in this way.  I love hearing his thoughts on music as he has them and love even more that he (and other musicians who communicate in this way) have control over their voice and what they tell us.

So, not only did the use of technology make my experience of the music at the Imogen Heap gig more immediate and personal, it also means I can interact with her at other times and connect with the music on another level than just the aural.  This can only add to the overall picture and gives me another avenue to integrate music into my life.  Despite some of it’s flaws (as briefly discussed above), technology (and social media) can actually add to our artistic experiences and when used in the right way can bring it to a level previously unimagined.

If you like technology and music then you must also check out Imogen Heaps Gloves that create music.  But that is a whole other blog post.

Visiting Denmark street.

Many moons ago, when I first started playing guitar in my mid to late teens, my best friend and I used to travel to London on a regular basis and browse the guitar and music shops in Denmark street.

If you don’t know, Denmark street (aka Tin Pan Alley) is a side street off Charing Cross road that is famous for it’s guitar and musical instrument shops and it is a mecca for anyone wishing to check out the latest instruments and gadgets.

I remember the anticipation and excitement I would feel as we travelled up on the train and then coming out of the main station in London and walking up the road as people and cars bustled around us.  The whole way up we’d talk about a variety of topics, but the main topic was music and the latest bands and songs that had moved us.  It set the theme for the day perfectly.  We’d often stop off on the way up Charing Cross road at a little CD shop we knew of (that is sadly no more) and buy some CD’s at a great price, then bag in hand we’d continue on up.

Upon reaching Denmark street we’d step into each shop and browse the guitars hanging on the walls and drool over expensive items of craftsmanship we could only aspire to.  The shop assistants were usually condescending and dismissive and I’m sure they thought we were just another couple of window shoppers who came in to gawp at and paw their products.

Occasionally when we were feeling braver and the sales assistants weren’t too antagonistic we would ask to try a guitar and we’d carefully cradle the instrument in our arms as we’d strum our rudimentary riffs and licks and try not to embarrass ourselves in public.

Every visit we’d come away with a new music notation book of some kind, or a capo, or some plectrums or some other gadget.  But once in a while, after we had saved up our money, we would actually buy a guitar.  This was a wonderful day and it felt great knowing we could try numerous guitars, safe in the knowledge we were going to buy one at the end of the process.  We usually knew roughly what we were looking for (acoustic or electric etc), but the final choice was often what grabbed and impressed us on the day.  And what fell into our price range!

I still have fond memories of striking a bargain (probably not as great as I thought at the time) and walking back to the station with our new purchase in it’s guitar case, eager to get home to tune it up and start to play it.   Even if it was my friend buying the guitar that day, the excitement was nearly as great and we both vicariously enjoyed the others purchase and growing guitar collection.  Hell, we shared nearly everything anyway, so a new guitar for one was really a new guitar for us both.  We’d cradle the guitar case in our hands on the train home and talk excitedly and then we’d walk to one of our houses from the station at the other end sharing carrying duties and often not even feeling the weight in our excitement and anticipation.  You can’t beat plugging a new guitar into an amp for the first time, or that first full strum of an acoustic guitar.

We may have been belittled by the arrogant shop assistants who I’m sure only worked in the shops until their own bands ‘took off’, but overall I have happy memories of visiting Denmark street.  It was a day out in London with my best friend, it was exploring new music and it was savouring that glow that comes from creating music yourself.  I no longer buy new guitars, or even play much anymore, but the experience of buying them and learning is one I still savour and those years were formative in my musical education and I’d not give them up for anything.

Introductions: Johnny Cash

I know I only wrote about Johnny Cash relatively recently (‘Embraced by Johnny Cash’), but an old friend asked me the other day where was a good place to start with listening to his music and I thought I’d share what I told him with you.

Initially I suggested he start off with a good best of compilation.  One of the best ones in my mind is ‘Ring of Fire: The Legend of Johnny Cash’.  This has the best of his early music, as well as a good selection of his later work and it is great to see labels collaborate to bring out a rounded best of collection for fans. 

I then said he should move on to the prison recordings (’At Folsom Prison‘ and ‘At San Quenstin‘).  This is the time when Cash was reborn as an artist and found his path again after his struggles with drugs and these albums sound especially alive and fresh.  The perspective of a live concert inside a prison is unique as well and the atmosphere as inmates holler and whoop along with the music and laugh at the gentle jokes at the prisons expense only adds to the music on offer.

Then I would jump ahead and work my way through the American recordings (7 albums).  These series of albums again revived Cash’s career after he was neglected by past record labels.  Rick Rubin took Cash to the studio and told him to make the music he had always wanted to without label interference or pressure and the result is a staggering collection of gospel, traditional, reworked and new music that rates extremely highly in Cash’s back catalogue.  Some albums feature just Cash and a guitar and others have a complete band, but regardless the music feels intimate and personal.

On ‘Unchained’ (the second in the series) Cash is backed up by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the cover of Petty’s ‘Southern accents’ is a real highlight.  The lyrics and significance seem to mean something more when sung in Cash’s rich timbre.

Across the series of albums you get covers of U2’s ‘One’, Sheryl Crow’s ‘Redemption Day’, Springsteen’s ‘Further on up the road’ and Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt’ and these all sound like they could’ve been written especially for Cash.  These are just a snapshot of the covers across the series and each album offers something new to tantalise and delight.

One hidden gem in the American recordings series is ‘My Mothers Hymn Book’ and as its name suggests it is a collection of songs that Cash grew up with at home, singing in the fields and church with his mother. This album was recorded towards the end of his life and was recorded in a cabin on his property.  Cash sings instinctively and accompanies himself on a guitar and he had said before he passed away that of all the albums he ever made, this was his favourite and who are we to argue.

I think if you managed to get these albums and spent some time listening to them you’d get a good idea of Cash and his music.  Of course there are other albums that are worth tracking down if the bug has bitten you and the collection of early Sun records tracks is worth a listen at some point.  But with a good best of collection, the prison recordings and the American recordings, you’d have a solid and satisfying introduction to an American legend.  I am still only scratching the surface of his music and it has moved me a great deal and quickly become an integral part of my music collection.

Singing the Blues

Funnily enough for quite a young boy, some of the first music I grew to love in my life was the Blues.  Maybe I was a morose young chap (although I don’t like to think so), or I had an old soul, but a part of me revelled in the stories told in the songs and I adored singing along ‘the sky is crying’ or ‘I’m a hoochie coochie man’ and I loved hearing the raw blues guitar or harmonica as it ripped through me and made my insides ache.

I started out with Eric Clapton and one of the first albums I owned was ‘Journeyman’.  The track ‘Old Love’, whilst slightly too polished to my ears now, was a great introduction to the blues.  I now prefer the slightly more emotional version from ‘24 Nights’.  Clapton’s album of blues covers ‘From the Cradle’ is still one of my favourite blues albums to this day and I will happily turn up the volume on this album and feel strangely uplifted by the blues on offer.

Jimi Hendrix is another early blues artist for me (I’ve mentioned in ‘Discovering Jimi Hendrix’ how I discovered his music) and whilst he has some great rock music in his back catalogue, tracks like ‘Red house’ are as blue as they come and the original version of ‘Voodoo Chile’ still gives me Goosebumps to this day.

I quickly began digging out other blues albums and blues compilations and mixed them with more rock stuff as well.  Gary Moore is a great example of a rock guitarist who also plays some searing blues guitar.  ‘The Loner’ and ‘Parisienne Walkways’ are both simply breath taking.

I also remember one track from a blues compilation that I used to play, rewind the cassette and then play again, called ‘Christo Redemptor’ by Charlie Musslewaite.  The version I had was a live performance and to hear the harmonica wailing away as the crowd whooped and yelled in the background was magical to my young ears.  But boy was that a mournful, melancholy soaked song!

My blues listening developed into a roll call of the greats, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Robert Johnson, Rory Gallagher, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and on and on and on and my blues education continued apace.

Even after my tastes moved on to other types of music and I started to listen to heavier rock during my teenage years I still had/have a soft spot for the blues.  I enjoy Seasick Steve and his style of blues and I have been playing his various albums a great deal recently.

The blues was for me and I still believe is for anyone, a great grounding to explore other music.  From the blues I explored soul and gospel music, jazz, the great rock bands of the 60’s, some of the heavier rock of the 70’s and 80’s and I can see it’s influence in some of the great metal bands I enjoy listening to today.

It goes without saying you don’t necessarily have to have a blue personality, or have experienced the same strife in your life as in the songs you hear.  The stories are often universal and the emotion in the music carries you along where there are holes in your own personal knowledge.

Although I may have been a slightly unusual child and when other kids were outside playing and still listening to the music their parent enjoyed, I was often inside reading my books and exploring my own musical avenues, but I wouldn’t of had it any other way.  It stood me in good stead when I started to experience my own heartache later in life and whilst I couldn’t stop these things from hurting me and shaping me, at least I could relate more directly and I had a damn good soundtrack to go along with them.